


Rattle the Stars

by thimble



Series: SASO 2017 [8]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Treasure Planet Fusion, M/M, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 21:18:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11113062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thimble/pseuds/thimble
Summary: "You made me into something," says Taiga. "I don't think I've ever been anything before.""No," says Tatsuya, "you always were."And that's the problem.





	Rattle the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> written for [this](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21522.html?thread=9914898#cmt9914898) prompt.

The boy is rough-edged, wild in the eyes, an absence of direction in his fists. He swings them, harshly, erratically, and the air sings, but Tatsuya finds easy to sidestep each blow, to lead the boy on a merry chase then catch him off guard, take him down in one hit.

Red eyes flash at him as the boy snaps his head up, spitting blood to the side. Tatsuya sees potential in him, even if it seems like no one else ever has.

"You're wasted here," he says, a hand motioning to the chaos around him, a government vessel under attack. "You're only a cabin boy, aren't you? I've seen how military men treat their cabin boys."

"Like pirates would treat me better," says the boy, though there's a hybrid of hope and uncertainty in his eyes. Tatsuya smiles, extending his mechanical hand, palm up.

"You'd be surprised."

 

* * *

 

It takes no time at all to learn the boy's name. Taiga is pliant clay behind his raw power and the callousness on his hands, with an eagerness to please that's valuable in a new recruit. The captain takes a liking to him immediately, and so do the rest of the crew, Tatsuya included.

But it doesn't compare to how much Taiga has taken a liking to _him_.

 

* * *

 

For an errand boy, Taiga is oddly clueless about running a vessel. Initially, Tatsuya thinks maybe he'd been wrong about Taiga's potential, but for all that he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for in enthusiasm. It doesn't hurt that he's a quick learner, too.

"Show me again, Tatsuya," he says, which Tatsuya answers with a helpless little smile.

"You already know how."

"Yeah, but you can do it better!" He nudges Tatsuya's shoulder with his knuckles, at the point where bone and metal connect. "And not just because of _that_. You're amazing."

"You have a habit of exaggerating," replies Tatsuya, but neither the accident nor the surgery had taken his heart away. When he looks at Taiga, it beats faster, rattling the gears in his chest.

 

* * *

 

Maybe he should have known it would happen. He usually does, usually maps out every possible outcome, usually expects the worst, but Taiga had become his blind spot without him knowing.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise that Taiga would surpass him.

"Gunner's mate. Congratulations," he tells Taiga, but the warmth in his smile doesn't reach his eyes. Taiga is too ecstatic to notice.

"It's all because of what you taught me, Tatsuya." Taiga pulls him close, buries his face in Tatsuya's throat like he doesn't mind how cold that side of his body is. "You made me into _something_. I don't think I've ever been anything before."

"No," says Tatsuya, and he's the only one who can ever recognize the cruel honesty in what he says next. "You always were."

And that's the problem.

 

* * *

 

"You want to know a secret, Tatsu?" They're on lookout duty, the only ones still awake besides the man at the helm. Taiga turns towards him and his eyes reflect the starlight; Tatsuya thinks of the first time he'd seen them, and of the softness that's in them now.

He doesn't think he's ever hated a sight more.

"I wasn't really a cabin boy. That's why I didn't know anything when I came on the ship. The only reason I was ever with those bastards was this—" He takes what seems to be golden sphere out of his pocket, piquing Tatsuya's interest.

"It's a map to Treasure Planet. I'm the only one who knows how to open it, and I said I wouldn't let them have it unless they took me along. But now," he says, reaching for Tatsuya's hand. "With the crew's help, we can do it, can't we? Together."

Tatsuya used to look at Taiga and see a friend. A brother, even. He has no words for how monstrous Taiga seems to him now.

"Yes. Together."

 

* * *

 

The next time they see each other, Taiga is in chains, bruised and beaten, at the captain's feet. Tatsuya towers over him at the captain's side.

"Did you think you could get away with it? Have all that treasure all to yourself?" The captain throws a kick at Taiga's ribs, making him double over, spitting blood to the side. It's almost nostalgic.

Tatsuya doesn't flinch, not even when Taiga looks up at him, pleading for answers. Tatsuya's face gives nothing away, until—

"Throw him off the ship."

Men haul Taiga to his feet and Tatsuya's eyes widen. He hadn't thought this far, hadn't meant for this to happen, hadn't wanted—

"No!"

Every gaze in the room turns to him. Taiga's, too, but that's the one he's trying to avoid. "No, you can't throw him off the ship." He fights to even out his voice, the way it wants to tremble for too many reasons to list. "He's the only one who can read the map."

His eyes make it to Taiga's anyway, and there's hurt in them, like he would've rather been thrown off the ship than used, again.

 

* * *

 

Little contact passes between them on the rest of the journey. Their eyes would meet on occasion, but part just as swiftly. Taiga wasn't to speak to anyone besides the captain, and Tatsuya's lost all right to speak to him anyway.

When Treasure Planet looms in front of them, bright and golden, Tatsuya averts his stare. Taiga got it half-right.

They made it here together.

 

* * *

 

He sees the glint of the blaster raised before he sees who's holding it, or who it's pointed at. It's one of the rarer members of the crew who'd never shared a drink or a laugh with Taiga, never had cause to show him mercy.

Or to keep him alive.

The other men are occupied with the loot, and Tatsuya instinctively knows it isn't on captain's orders.

"We don't need you anymore, boy," the man says and pulls the trigger, but Tatsuya's a faster shot.

The man doubles over, blood splattering across the treasure. When the rest of the crew glance to where they are, they'll see only Tatsuya with his weaponized arm, and one of their own dead at Taiga's feet.

He grabs Taiga's hand with his own, the one that's flesh and bone, and wordlessly pulls him into a run.

 

* * *

 

They won't make it in time to the portal, not the two of them. Not without one staying behind.

"You go ahead, Taiga. I'll stall."

"I'm not going to leave you!" Even after everything Tatsuya's done, Taiga looks sick at the very notion of it. Tatsuya wonders what would've happened to him if someone better had found him that day. Someone who wouldn't betray him, or take him for granted. Maybe he would've been happy.

Maybe he still could be.

"You won't. I'll follow you, but I'm the only one who's armed. Let me get in a few shots first."

Taiga bites his lip, but he nods, quickens his pace. Even after everything—that relentless trust, that honest love.

Tatsuya stops running and turns around to face the ones chasing them.

Beside his heart, an explosive is nestled, a self-destruct button as good as any. He'd had it installed as a precaution, a way to win a battle even if he were ever captured. The captain had praised his initiative, then.

He thinks of Taiga safely making it to a safe place inside the portal and turning around to realize Tatsuya isn't behind him. Tatsuya wishes he could've given him an apology with words, but this would have to do.

He reaches into his chest, and skin gives way to machinery.

With a smile, he pulls at the wires.


End file.
